"The Information Paper is a proactive step by the ACCC to help ISPs comply with their obligations under the Act when advertising their broadband services and prevent consumers being misled as to the speeds achievable on various technologies."

"The paper draws attention to the industry practice of using hypothetical speeds as the basis of speed claims when these speeds are unlikely to be achieved in the real world."

"The ACCC is concerned that ISPs are using 'hypothetical' speeds when these speeds are just that – available to the hypothetical consumer not necessarily the real world consumer. At the ACCC, we are concerned about the real-world consumer."

"The paper focuses on ADSL2+ because consumers may be attracted to these services by speed claims. As a new technology, consumers usually have less information than the provider of the service and may be misled by headline claims of hypothetical maximum speeds."

See the paper here:
http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/779422/fromItemId/2332

This paper could just as well have been issued yesterday and not 4 years ago – it seems that nothing has changed.

Looking today (June 2011) on iSelect I can chose between the following:

Provider Cost Speed quoted

iiNet $59.95 per month Speed "Up to 24Mbs"

YesOptus $49.99 per month "Super fast"

BigPond $69.96 "Supersonic"

On other websites such as YouCompare I find the speed of ADSL2+ quoted as "ADSL2+"

I can chose the price, contract length and data limit but why is there no clarity on what is arguably the most important factor – the speed?

I recently found my ADSL2+ speed in Woolloomooloo was around 1Mbs and complained to the provider – great service response and we talked through all settings. No change so we changed the wire between the router and the socket. Then we changed the router. ($159)

After all this I was told again that we must be "too far from the exchange" – I can see Westpac, RBS, Deutsche Bank and Sydney CBD about 500m away so I sent an email asking, specifically, "Where is the exchange exactly?". No address was given in the reply but I was told an engineer would be coming over within 2 days – interesting response. Engineer's visit to flat and then to exchange revealed nothing actually wrong but our speed rose to 5Mbs.

So now we had one fifth of the advertised speed but I really wanted to know where the exchange was so I rang again – the service desk "didn't have the exact address" but would send a different type of engineer the next day. This time engineer said the line was very noisy and he wasn't surprised that we had problems and would report the problem to the telco who look after the line.

A week later we're still just under 5Mbs.

Then I suggested to the provider that we divide their monthly fee by 5 and I pay that instead and was finally rewarded by the address of the exchange: 330 Liverpool St, Darlinghurst 2010 which is a 3km+cable run from Cowper Wharf Road, Woolloomooloo. It might be.

But does anyone who lives in Liverpool St, Darlinghurst get 24Mbs? Please do leave a comment below.

And is it really honest for the ISPs to be selling people in Woolloomooloo (and I would expect, Potts Point and other areas) an "up to 24Mbs" connection when they know they won't get more than 1/5 of that?

Time for some transparency whether it's voluntary or through legislation – consumers are being taken for a [slow] ride.

Further reading:

It is an international problem:
Average broadband speeds 'less than half those advertised', says Ofcom (UK)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/mar/02/broadband-speeds-advertising-ofcom

Ofcom calls for clarity in broadband speed as difference between advertised and actual speed widens:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10760069

Let's hope it's improved soon – their seats and screens are bigger, they have a hundred channels of pauseable video with whole seasons of TV shows instead of just one episode like other airlines, better staff and more hot towels than anyone else.

The lesson to the rest of us is: it obviously happens to the best - be bold with your new launches but de-bug and learn quickly from your mistakes.

Here are some lessons to learn from a rushed launch.

1) Before launching a new site, you must test in all major browsers.

Using a Mac with Safari – Manage my booking does not work - It's difficult to find "Manage my booking" but when pressed it does not return any booking - staying on the same page and does not work. Before launching a new site, you must test in all major browsers or you will suffer damage to your brand perception. People see your website as an extension of your real world service

People see your website as an extension of your real world service.

2) Don't force users to repeat actions they don't need to.

Trying different flight options – site forgets dates and defaults back to today - When trying out different options for a flight, the site continually forgets the dates and these have to be re-entered when they shouldn't be. Sometimes the Stopover function doesn't seem to load the options.

The process from start to finish must be fast and barrier-less.

3) Broken links are inexcusable and are not very difficult to test for.

Australian Krisflyer (frequent flyer) 'Feedback and enquiries' link does not work. If you go to contact us, chose Australia and Sydney and then press Krisflyer - Feedback and enquiries - this link is broken, takes you to an error page and then defaults to the home page.

4) Be careful how you use social media sharing buttons

Unusual for a company like Singapore Airlines to use AddThis. I like the 'AddThis' share button that they've used on the site but it's unusual to see a company like SQ use it as AddThis has the following term in its T&Cs which confirms that they are collecting data on users in return for providing the share button for free - this could allow them, for example, to re-target ads by another airline.

http://www.addthis.com/privacy says:

"We do help advertisers reach large groups of people that express similar interests and behaviors.

We believe more relevant advertising provides a better Internet experience. This is also how we support our business with a service that is free to you. For example, we could help an advertiser reach people who are interested in technology. In some cases, this may involve your visitors receiving a "cookie" from an NAI-approved advertising partner. They can manage their industry-wide advertising preferences at AboutAds.info. "

Further reading on Singapore Airlines new site:

Computerworld - Singapore Airlines customers vent over website crash
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/387825/singapore_airlines_customers_vent_over_website_crash/